[PEN-L:1575] Re: Unions win against RTZ/CRA

[Ellen Dannin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

On Fri, 24 Nov 1995, Peter Colley wrote:
 
> CRA cites Tiwai as an example of the success of its strategy, and claims
> that productivity and the like have improved enormously.  There are two
> aspects to such claims:
> 
> 1.  They are never independently verified.  We all know how shonky the OHS
> statistics are from transnationals operating in third world countries where
> such statistics are never independently scrutinised.  CRA makes similar
> spurious claims with regard to producticity in mines in unionised mines
> here compared to non-unionised mines in the USA.

This may well be true, at least in part, if productivity figures have 
wages as a component. The wages offered workers at Tiwai seemed higher 
but were not once overtime and other penal rates were lost under the new 
agreements.  The result would have been lower cost of labor for each unit 
of production, whether or not anything was done to improve processes.

ellen dannin